REVIEW: Project Superpowers: Chapter 2, Issue 2

Project: Superpowers, the amazing re-vitalization of old public domain heroes, continues this week with the second issue of the second mini-series by Alex Ross and company, and I get the pleasure of checking out the preview issue that Dynamite Entertainment provided.

The Superpowers are now habiting the Pentagon, twenty four hours after their confrontation with the President of the United States, who was revealed to be Power Nelson, and his Super-Patriots.  Green Lama is meditating in the Green, contemplating if he did the right thing when he helped Fighting Yank free the heroes trapped in Zeus’s Urn, also known as Pandora’s Box. He notes that they have all changed from their time in the Urn, some physically, some mentally, and that his old friend The Black Terror is no longer the rational, thinking man with a gentle spirit that Green Lama once knew.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Superpowers find another of their fellows, Captain Future, has been spotted fighting two of the new heroes, Truth and Dare. Arriving to help or stop their old comrade, they find a brutal, sadistic monster instead of the friend they once had. It seems that Captain Future has been in the Caribbean leading the people in a sort of drunken orgy, and he has not been too gentle about it. Truth and Dare arrived to stop him and his carnal rampage, and he quickly put them on their heels.  Once the rest of the heroes arrive, Samson tries to talk reason with the good Captain, but is quickly put down, hard. The man who could only be fell by God’s Power has been brought down by the power of Captain Future. In horror, the other heroes realize that Samson, one of the few heroes not trapped in the Urn for decades, has no pulse.

The issue continues along at a quick pace, and what a story you get! The Inheritors continue their quest to gather heroes to stand against their former mentors, adding another damaged, former Urn prisoner to their ranks. The Big Shots begin to wonder about their place in the new world, and have a drink to discuss the situation, and the fight against the terrorist organization The Claw continues.  Round out the rest of the issue with cryptic comments such as, “You are not ready to know the truth about yourself”, supporters and protestor outside the Pentagon, the revelation that a hero has been captured and tortured by the Supremacy and the appearance of powerful former Urn prison on the bad guys payroll, and you have another bang up issue. All this and a two page origin of The Boy King for a treat!

There are LOTS of characters making appearances in this series, but it never falls into a jumble of confusing cameos.  Alex Ross and Jim Krueger have set out a plot that is tight with very few wasted moments, and the art by Edgar Salazar gives the series a sense of real world weight while grounding it in its own reality.  As easy as it would have been for Ross to simply take the characters and introduce them in an universe that mirrored our own, he has taken the time to construct a world that has enough similarities to our to make it believable, while at the same time giving it that air of history that is due these characters. As an added bonus, we are treated to the origin of The Boy King, leader of the Inheritors, as a beautiful two page piece with art by Doug Klauba.

I was a fan of the original series, and this entry is not disappointing either. Ross and company get 4 out of 5 stars for this continuation of what is shaping up to be a great series. I said it last week in my review of   Project: Superpowers – Meet the Bad Guys #1, Dynamite has a chance to give the Big Two a run for their money.  This should be required reading on how to treat Golden Age characters in the modern day. It comes out tomorrow, August 26th; pick it up at your local comic shop.